Novel (Yokohama Masters Champion) Hobby Games Interview Translation

Preface

Hello everyone, this is the first post I’m going to make on this blog because it’s the first thing I’ve worked on that I can’t post on Reddit easily. If there is interest in this kind of thing I would be very open to doing more translations and/or providing my own thoughts on the game in the future.

The original article can be found here and is property of the author (Taruho) and Card Gamer of Hobby Japan. I do not own anything and my only intention in translating the article is to make it more accessible to the English-speaking FF-TCG community; if, for any reason, Taruho or Card Gamer desire for me to take down this post I will do so immediately.

Lastly, I would like to express that I have no formal training in translation and have only ever done so as a hobby, so I ask that people be patient if parts of the interview have awkward grammar or are otherwise difficult to read.

/u/EurekaMinus

@EurekaMinus

The article and interview begins here.

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◆Beginning
Nice to meet you everyone.
I’m the FF-TCG player known as “Taruho”. I have the pleasure of playing with my friends over SNS and attending Masters and other large FF-TCG events.

It may seem like an obvious question, but have you ever fought against a deck you didn’t understand or anticipate the moves of at an event before?

Have you not thought about the concept of the deck you were playing against, or what you could do to win against it?

In this article we will address questions like “How was that deck made?”, “Why is that player so good?”, “How can I become better?” with players I’ve met as well as their thinking during deckbuilding and play, and the strength behind it.

This time I have the pleasure of presenting you with an interview I conducted with novel, winner of last week’s Masters Yokohama.

Novel

A formidable player who has taken major titles at Masters Yokohama and Tokyo Opening Tour. He is an FF9 fanatic who has a collection with 9 foil copies of various FF9 cards.

▲novel’s beloved FF9 collection

◆Why did you decide on Ice/Lightning? Why are aggressive decks dominant in early metas?
――First of all, congratulations on your victory at the Yokohama Masters. Now then, what kind of circumstances led to you choosing Ice/Lightning as your deck for the event?

novel：Thank you very much. I actually used this Ice/Lightning deck which existed before the Opus III meta because I thought Water-based decks would be popular (for the event).
――Actually Mono Water won the Masters Sendai event which took place just one week after the release of Opus III, and there were multiple in the Top 8 of Yokohama.

novel：That brought my attention to【3-037H】Zalera, the Death Seraph. This summon can break all of Mono Water’s core Forwards, including【3-139C】Knight,【3-129L】Garnet, and【3-144L】Lenna. This single card can compete with Mono Water’s development and recovery power, and I decided I was going to use this card (at the event) because of that.

――Then, why did you decide on Lightning as your secondary Element?
novel： After deciding to focusing on Zalera and Ice as the main element, I tested builds for Fire/Ice, Ice/Earth, and Ice/Lightning.
First, in Fire/Ice, I looked at utilizing【3-012L】Zack to empower Forwards who have already used their abilities once placed on the field, like【1-195S】Serah, and rely on support cards like【2-009R】Selphie and【2-009R】Belias to continue attacking.

novel: Ice/Earth has a similar strong point, using cards like【1-101R】Gippal and【1-106C】Golem to raise Forwards power to make a push. Returning【1-101R】Gippal to the Field with【1-048C】Devout is another powerful combo.

novel：Ice/Lightning had great synergy between【3-037H】Zalera, the Death Seraph and【2-098L】Amon, which allowed me to dull Forwards at instant speed. By using this card (Amon), I was able to amplify the effect of【3-037H】Zalera the Death Seraph’s ability in a way that was not available in other Elements. Because【2-098L】Amon is still very powerful on his own, the deck’s construction didn’t become warped just by trying maximize the effects of this combo.

Additionally, while it isn’t possible to the raise the Power of all of your Forwards in Ice/Lightning,【2-107C】Cyclops lowers the Power of your opponent’s Forwards and lets you fight on the same Power discrepancies as you would by using other Elements. The ever-popular【2-097H】Al-Cid and his power to develop a board while removing your opponent’s meant that Lightning provided great synergy with key cards, attacking power, and development, which led me to feel it had more potential than other Elements for this particular deck.

――Did you consider Mono Ice as a possibility?
novel：Mono Ice would have provided a certain amount of security, but I felt like there were problems in its ability to respond (to the opponent’s plays). Zalera has problems breaking even-costed Forwards, and popular Mono Water deck play some cards like【2-121H】Ashe which allow them to Activate their Forwards, so I decided against it. As it turns out, on Day 1 ended up playing against Mono Ice and getting totally crushed by it.
――Out of the remaining two Elements, I can’t really get a grasp on how a Wind/Ice deck might work, but in Ice/Water you would be able to search【3-030L】Kuja from【3-127R】Eiko and cast【3-032R】Shiva with【3-129L】Garnet; it seems like it might be a fairly effective deck. Did you consider it at all?
novel：I did think that Ice/Water may be a good control deck. However, in early metas there are a wide variety of decks, and because of that building responsive control decks is very difficult. It isn’t possible to perfectly foresee the speed of aggressive decks and prepare for the Power levels of core Forwards (in a diverse, early meta), things which are critical to building control decks. Because of this I chose to forego Ice/Water for a more proactive deck.

――Many people had the mentality that Mono Water was very strong going into the event. You ultimately decided on using Ice/Lightning to oppose Mono Water, but there are other players who were choosing between using Mono Water or instead (like you) using a deck effective against Mono Water. Did that worry you at all?
novel：I can only really say this about the Yokohama Masters, but because the meta is still young and there haven’t been many events to date, even if people have the information that Mono Water is strong there are still many people who haven’t had the chance to play against it extensively. In the end, people are making decks using cards that they’re paying real money for, so even if they are the type to make counter-strategies, when they hear that a deck is strong it’s human to want to take it to a tournament at least once, or so I think. Because of this, even though we had information that Mono Water was strong based on the Sendai Masters the week before, most people still wouldn’t move on to countering it.

――This Ice/Lightning, what kind of interaction does it have with decks designed specifically to defeat Mono Water?
novel：The combination of Dull, Freeze, and Zalera’s effect to Break Forwards means that as long as an opponent’s deck isn’t comprised completely of even-costed Forwards it can still be played to great effect. Also, even if Zalera doesn’t have a strong effect against a certain deck there is always the possibility of pushing through with Discard effects, and so I don’t think the deck has any particularly poor matchups.
――I’ve heard that you’re a very passionate collector of FF9, did you not consider building a Fire/Water deck?

novel：Actually, during preparation I was using Fire/Water deck chalk full of FF9 cards. But then I realized that Zalera would break all of the FF9 Forwards. Because of that, I had to squeeze the cast down to just the rivals, Kuja and Zidane.  
――How was it using【3-030L】Kuja?

novel：He can be considered weak because he lacks an ability when played onto the field, but I think he’s actually a very strong card. While it’s true that there’s a bit of a time lag before you can use his abilities, because the meta is currently centered around Water he often isn’t immediately broken, and there are a number of opportunities to use his abilities. Additionally, when your draws are weak he provides an opportunity to use your CP efficiently and reduce turns in which you would otherwise be doing nothing. The winning deck at Sendai Masters played a single copy of【3-146H】Minerva; the single copy of Kuja is similar in that it is very powerful after you’ve both used up your hands.

――It’s a little off topic, but what do you think of【3-146H】Minerva?

novel：In the current meta it’s mutually understood that within Light and Dark Element cards【3-154S】Zidane is the single best card, but I find Minerva to be a perceptive choice. If returned by【1-178R】Leviathan or otherwise dealt with immediately after coming out it can be a huge loss, but if you can play it after forcing your opponent to use up those kinds of answers it can definitely cover those weaknesses. It might see popularity as a tech for Mono Water.
――Do you think its play will be limited to Mono Water?
novel：I do think that it could be effective in other decks. For example, coupling it with【2-147L】The Emperor could be very strong. However, in Mono Water even if you end up drawing Minerva first, you can search Zidane out and put him onto the Field beforehand. I think that kind of flexibility allows it to be particularly effect in Mono Water. Earlier I said that I had foregone Ice/Water, but it might be possible if using her (Minverva’s) power to strengthen your Forwards. This seems like something that is worth researching.

◆Thinking of cards in ABCs? Let’s ask a veteran player about deckbuilding!
――Looking at your decklist this time, there are many cards that you’re playing 3 of and others you only play 2 of that might stick out to some people. If there are things you think about during deck construction would you please tell us about them?
novel：I originally had 3 copies of【3-154S】Zidane in the deck, but when you open up 2 of them in your opening hand it’s incredibly bad. Especially when you’re going first and on the offensive, often times Zidane ends up not being broken and staying on the field, rendering you with the extra copy stuck in your hand. In terms of raw card power I would play 3 without complaining, but I decided on playing only 2 because of his Light element.

――Could you tell us about your criteria for card selection when putting together a deck?
novel：When selecting cards I tend to list card in terms of priority and decide that way. Taking my deck for this event as an example,【1-042R】Squall,【1-059R】Laguna, and【3-037H】Zalera, the Death Seraph are the key cards, and so I put 3 of each into the deck. They are, for example, “Squall A”, “Squall B”, and “Squall C”. If you think of it like this it’s more like Dragon Quest than Final Fantasy.
Moving on, I had originally put 3 copies of【2-098L】Amon in the deck as well. However, Serah A was stronger in terms of the deck’s direction than Amon C. Similarly, Zidane A was stronger than Serah C, and Al-Cid A was stronger than Zidane C. Following this pattern, I was quickly able to decide how many of each card to put in. The last slot was a competition between【3-033L】Genesis B, 【2-047L】Rinoa C, and【3-030L】Kuja A, with Kuja A emerging the victor. It’s good to put 2 copies of powerful cards into your deck, but when it comes to that card’s C, or 3^rd copy, I try to think if a certain card’s A is more powerful instead.

――As a result of that thinking cards with special abilities like【2-047L】Rinoa end up only having 2 total copies in the deck, does that not have an impact on your deckbuilding?
novel：That tends to vary as to whether that card can be searched or not. This deck doesn’t have a way to search (for Rinoa), so it’s hard to plan to use her special ability. With packages like【1-204S】Jessie and【2-077L】Vincent, you can plan to use their special abilities ahead of time during deck construction, but I didn’t really think about doing so this time. Even if I were to plan for it, I think that Kuja A was still stronger than Rinoa C.

――You mentioned that【1-042R】Squall and【1-059R】Laguna are key cards in the deck, but you didn’t opt to include【2-048R】Rinoa in the deck. There was also an Ice/Lightning deck at the Grand Championship Nagoya which utilized【2-048R】Rinoa.
novel：Actually, that list was a deck that the user, Sid and I had prepared together, but it was prepared specifically with the Grand Championship tournament format in mind.

The first day of the Grand Championship has 7 Swiss rounds and the second day has, at longest, 4 more Swiss rounds and best-of-3 rounds in the playoffs; it’s a really long tournament. In tournaments with a lot of rounds like this, the possibility of bricking and dropping games as a result increases significantly. Including【2-048R】Rinoa in that list was part of a strategy which involved using search cards like【1-196S】Mog [XIII-2],【2-106R】Gramis, as well as effects that allow you to retrieve discarded cards like【1-133C】Sage to reduce the risk of having games in which your draws are so bad you end up losing.
【2-047L】Rinoa’s ability is incredibly powerful, and when she is on the board she can completely flip a game or let you push on otherwise impossible to manage boards, but we thought that including a card which drew out 70~80& of our deck’s power instead of one with an explosive effect was more important for that tournament. It kinda feels like we’re walking alone in “I won with this crazy deck I made the morning of the tournament”, but our card selection was actually a result of a lot of thinking. In contrast to that (the Grand Championship), the Yokohama Masters wasn’t a very long event and I chose【2-047L】Rinoa instead.

◆Making an unexpected deck, and “Simple Game” mentality
――You mentioned that you made the deck together, but how do you normally come together to make decks?
novel：In the end we usually meet up and practice together in person, but lately we’ve been using LINE to call and play against each other.
――How do you normally play on LINE?
novel：Normally we just say stuff like ”Discard ‘XX’ and ‘YY’ to play ‘ZZ’. End turn”, talking to each other in order to play. At first we were using webcams on Skype to play but one of us ended up saying “Do we even need the camera?” So we tried just using audio and it was fine. By playing with a simulated board in our head instead of looking at an actual one, we were able to avoid misplays that come from things like overlooking parts of the field or break zone, and that had a big part in improving our skills.

――A while back you mentioned that early in the meta it’s better to play aggressive decks, but, for example, just before Opus IV and players have more experience, how does this change?
novel：As meta research progresses straightforward aggression reaches its limit. It might be true that there is a gap between players who don’t make mistakes or minimize their mistakes and the ones who do which ends in the former winning, but it isn’t so simple as to just do that (make less mistakes). I think that when the meta reaches that point it’s necessary to find some kind of breakthrough, or an unexpected way of fighting.
――This “unexpected way of fighting”, I feel like it’s the polar opposite of the security-focused approach you were talking about before.
novel：That’s exactly right. It’s about forsaking risks. Going based on your results and using a deck you’re practiced with, or reducing the power of your deck a bit and finding some kind of unexpected tech that will let you reduce the impact of your opponent’s experience. My personal thought process is that in a meta in which all possibilities have been thoroughly researched, finding unexpected tech is slightly better than a secure deck. To put it another way, in early metas you should use people’s lack of experience to your advantage, and in developed metas you should use everyone’s ample experience to your advantage. Aside from your deck choices and play this is the most important thing when going to an event, so I want people to think about it.

――When you won the Opening Tour Tokyo tournament you had brought an Ice/Earth Hand Destruction deck that hadn’t existed up until that point.
novel：That was towards the end of Opus I, an event in which everyone had experience. At the time there were mainly Golbez, Fire/Ice, and Fire/Water decks in the meta, and I had tuned the deck with the Forwards’ power very specifically in mind. This is a little obvious, but as long as you’re winning in Power, when you attack you don’t need to use abilities or summons; as a result, you don’t make as many misplays. I call that a “Simple Game”. “Simple Game” makes it sound like I mean it’s shallow or “a game without substance”, but I assure you I mean “a game in which your path to victory is simple”. I always try to opt to play a deck which can create a Simple Game. Related to the “unexpected move” I was talking about earlier, if your opponent makes a mistake in their counterstrategy it’s natural that you get closer to winning, so this too is in service of reaching a Simple Game.

――At both Opening Tour Tokyo and the Yokohama Masters you used a deck which focused on Hand Destruction elements; is it not true that by taking away options from your opponent you are also allowing them to play a Simple Game?
novel：It’s true, by taking away options from your opponent and developing straightforwardly you reduce the possibility that your opponent misplays. However, in both my previous Ice/Earth and this Ice/Lightning, if both players run out of hand I had two 4-cost 9000 Power Forwards on the field which opened an advantage with the auto abilities I played,【1-042R】Squall and【1-059R】Laguna. It is not easy to get over this. Additionally, cards that are strong immediately when drawn like the previously used【1-101R】Gippal or this time’s【2-098L】Amon drew me to the conclusion that I would be able to win. I’ve said it before, but in a game with a lot of deck variation like FF-TCG, there is nothing more important than finding a way of winning you’re good at and playing a Simple Game to get there. When I won Opening Tour Tokyo and this time too, I was glad I was able to do that.

――Thank you very much. Do you have anything to say to the FF-TCG players?
FF-TCG is fun to play with your friends too, not just competitive events and tournaments, so I would be happy to participate in casual events and I have the chance to meet a lot of people!

If we’re ever matched up at an event, please treat me well!

◆I’ll be asking players about various things from here on out too!
This brings an end to the interview from our Yokohama Masters champion, novel.

He taught us about deck construction, deck selection theory, and how to view events in general. I hope you could see and think about the way veteran players struggle with FF-TCG choices.

I would be happy to interview other players given the opportunity.

I look forward to being able to bring you the next article.

Thank you!